Hold Me Back
by storywriter30
Summary: AU post 11x02. He stood from his desk and awkwardly, but eagerly pulled her into a hug. He tried for a moment to relish that feeling of having her in his arms again but he couldn't escape the push of her swollen stomach against him.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Long time no see, friends. And yet, there was no way I could stay away after "Family First." Here's a long multi-chapter AU that I've been working on for quite some time. We go AU after 11x02. ~xo. Cara.**

* * *

 ** _Chapter One_**

 ** _July 2019_**

There is no perfect place to live in the world. Residents of one mid-coast Maine town, however, would beg that their home comes as close as can be.

Camden, Maine is classic New England. It's a fishing town, sprung up from the harbor. The center of town is just steps away from the docks that are lined with lobster crates.

It's not a sleepy town by any means, but the winter is long and people keep to themselves and their daily routines. There isn't much that goes on between the first snow and the first thaw. Late spring all the way to the fall brings everyone out of their homes. The small lakes that lie on the outskirts of town are filled with the sound of splashing water as families congregate on their small beaches. Sure, there are vacationers that come, but most of them are seasonal residents whose families have been frequenting Camden long before the resort popped up just south of the town line.

Because Camden is what one would consider a safe and quiet town, most people have had little contact with the town's chief of police. After all, he's only been there a few months. The gossiping old women know that he's not married, but they heard he's engaged. He has a daughter. She's somewhere between five and six.

Of course, all of that changes one March afternoon.

* * *

Maeve Burns slowed her car and turned right at the junction. She made her way into town. She hadn't been down here since the news broke just twelve hours before hand. Her electric bill, however, was over due and so, much to her chagrin, she'd gotten into her car this morning, driven past the yellow police tape that outlined her street and headed for downtown Camden. She wasn't surprised to see local news affiliate staked out on the common nor did the growing gathering of locals peak her interest. She'd expected them.

She parked her car and tried to avoid the questioning gaze of a throng of women from across the street as she got out and headed for the electric company's mailbox. Laurie Brown and Elizabeth Marks were part of said throng and she knew it was only a matter of time before one of them crossed the street and accosted her.

She was depositing the check in the mailbox when her cell phone rang.

"Mom." Kelly, her grown daughter was frantic. "Mom, is it true? Are these your neighbors?"

"Kelly, I can't really talk about it." Maeve responded. She cast another gaze across the street and caught Laurie Brown's eyes from the common. Maeve looked down.

"I don't understand," Kelly said. "What's the big deal? I'm all the way in California. It's not like I'll impede the investigation."

Maeve sighed. "Yes, this is the neighbor I talk about. That's all I can say."

"So it's the little girl you babysit?"

Maeve nodded, though Kelly couldn't see it. Her thoughts drifted to Maya. The way she filled the woman's days with the laughter and joy. Maeve hadn't had much of that in the years since her husband died and her children one by one moved away. And then a young family had bought the house next door to her. Both parents worked, but neither one had been comfortable with putting their young daughter in a daycare facility. That's where Maeve had become part of the family. And slowly, but surely she'd learned their story and she'd become invested in their lives, their future, just like they were her own children.

* * *

Tim surveyed the area as the charger pulled into town. He'd been to Camden many times before in the four years that Tony and Ziva had lived here. He and Delilah loved it in the summer. There was no humidity like they suffered through in Washington and he'd never seen a sunset like the one by the lighthouse. It was where he'd proposed – Tony and Ziva in the background, Maya getting into trouble on the rocks. There was no place he'd felt safer. Tim could have never imagined his next visit to the northern Maine town would be like this.

"Locals picked it up," Gibbs nodded, head extending toward the direction of the small crowd and news crew gathered on the commons. It was the first thing he'd said since they had landed in Portland. This was, after all, his Maya. His granddaughter.

Tim turned off the main road and headed for Tony and Ziva's street. Maya was someone that they were all protective of, for obvious reasons, but it went deeper then familial love.

Maya was their symbol of good. She was a physical reminder that good could trump evil. Despite all the bad that Ziva had endured in her life, all the things that had kept she and Tony apart, Maya was the good that gave them the courage to pull themselves back together. For something, _someone_ to harm that, it was an act of war.

He tapped the brake as the car carrying Fornell and his team in front of him stopped at the police checkpoint at the end of Tony and Ziva's street. They lived at the end of the road, over looking a small lake. Tim and Tony had built a small dock one summer for fun that turned into a piece of woodworking that could rival one of Gibbs' boats – ramp for Delilah included.

The FBI mobile command center seemed out of place, as it over looked the serene lake. He couldn't help but picture Maya cannonballing off the dock. After showing his badge, Tim was waved onto the street and his car crept along the road. Fornell had just got out of his own sedan and McGee could see Ziva coming down her stairs to meet him.

He approached just as Ziva ran a hand over her face and spoke to Fornell. "I didn't hear anything. I had just been inside a few moments." She turned as McGee approached and he watched her face fall.

"We're going to find her," he growled.

She nodded, but there were tears in her eye. "We're in Maine," she croaked. "I mean, it is not like Tony and I have made enemies."

"You sure about that?" Gibbs asked.

She turned on her heel to look at him, her face a mix of disbelief and utter shock. How dare he question her? She stumbled over the words. "No, I'm not."

Gibbs nodded, the epitome of calm on the outside, but McGee knew this was harming him just as much as anyone else. He just couldn't let Ziva know that. He had to be her rock.

"We'll run everything down," he assured.

Ziva nodded absentmindedly and then pointed to the deck. "Tony's upstairs with some of his squad. They're looking at traffic cameras."

Fornell and Gibbs headed up the winding stairs of the deck, but McGee stayed behind. He waited until they were out of earshot before sidling up next to her.

"How are you holding up?" he asked.

She laughed, but it came out more like a sob. "Not well." She said. "I thought moving here would erase the possibility of something like this."

McGee nodded. He didn't know what to say so he just pulled her into a hug and held on tight.

* * *

 _May 2014_

 _As usual, the bullpen was eerily quiet as the clock approached midnight. Tony, however, was becoming accustomed to the quiet that was only mediated by the occasional hum as the radiator roared to a start. He flipped through report that he'd finished almost two hours ago. He couldn't make it more perfect even if he tried. So he flipped it back to front again. Front to back._

 _Tony alone in the bullpen, the clock approaching and then passing midnight was a commonplace sight these days. He simply had no desire to go home. It wasn't that since his trip around the world last fall, his apartment had become quieter; it was simply that since his trip around the world, he'd realized that he didn't particularly like the quiet. So he stayed at the office as long as he could. He immersed himself in his work and he tried to save others because he couldn't save himself._

 _The ding of the elevator caught his attention. The maintenance crews had long since gone home. He watched as Eric, one of the late night security guards stepped out of the elevator. Tony looked back at his file. Some would say he was being obsessive; really it was just a distraction._

 _"Tony?"_

 _He's not sure he'll ever be able to describe the jolt that shot through his body at the sound of her voice again. But his eyes shot up and all of a sudden there she was. His Ziva was standing right before him._

 _"Haa-hi," he stuttered, the air momentarily gone from his lungs. And then his eyes cleared and his brain focused and he realized that not only was Ziva standing before him, but there was a baby bump and a large one at that, that accompanied her._

 _He stood from his desk and awkwardly, but eagerly pulled her into a hug. He tried for a moment to relish that feeling of having her in his arms again but he couldn't escape the push of her swollen stomach against him. It was the proverbial elephant in the room._

 _He pulled back and looked down. "You're pregnant." He stated._

 _"Yes," she nodded._

 _"I…Wow… Congratulations."_

 _She shook her head and wiped a tear from the corner of her eye. "I felt as though I had waited too long to tell you on the phone and I didn't want to not tell you, but I also didn't want to just tell you."_

 _He turned his head at her and tried to read between the lines. "What…"_

 _She shook her head and continued from where she left off. "I should have called you when I found out. I know. I'm sorry for it. I hope one day you'll… forgive me."_

 _That was when he got it. It was somewhere between the tear hanging out in the corner of her eye and the way she looked like her entire existence was dependent on his next word._

 _"Mine?" he asked._


	2. Chapter Two

**Chapter Two**

Finn Lewis knew the second that the Feds arrived at his boss' house. There was a cosmic shift that went on in the air around them. One minute they were a small town force drowning in a case too big for their file cabinets and too heavy for their hearts and the next, they were scurrying around taking orders from men who have seen far more and far worse than Finn had ever dreamed to see when he became a police officer.

The chaotic swirl around him, this was a scene out of his worst nightmares. He had only met Maya DiNozzo three times in the five months that her father had been his boss. Every time the curly-haired ball of energy would come into headquarters and turn the place into her own personal theater, DiNozzo looked like he felt like he was ruining her – exposing her to something that he could never take back.

It had only taken a little while for Lewis to begin to admire the way DiNozzo engaged with his daughter. Lewis' wife Amy was pregnant and though it scared him more than anything else in his life, he figured that if he watched DiNozzo long enough, maybe he would have a shot of doing something right.

Lewis hadn't liked Tony when he had been hired. Truthfully, he'd been angry that he himself had been passed over for the promotion. Finn Lewis had become a police officer when he was just twenty years old. He had, had a troubled youth, always running away from the police in the woods, but he had turned himself around – gotten an associate's degree in criminal justice and worked his way up the ranks in the department. He was a training officer by twenty-two, a detective by twenty-four, at twenty-six, he was the department major and then at twenty-seven he was the Deputy Chief of Police. Finn had wanted to be the chief by thirty. It would be a state record, but he couldn't compete with Tony's resume.

He had been a police officer in Baltimore for years and then a detective. Finn was pretty sure that, that was followed by a stint in Philadelphia before he joined NCIS. He was there for more than ten years. Three years ago, he became team leader to NCIS's liaison team to the all of the Coast Guard bases in Maine. And then two years ago, he became the head of all Naval Criminal Investigative Services on the northern East Coast.

Camden was about slowing down. It was about his family. Finn Lewis couldn't help but admire that

It had only taken Finn a week or two to warm up to his new Chief of Police. He was charismatic, he knew how to lead and, more than anything else, he was smart, fast and sharp. He made Finn want to be a better police office, a better man and, above all else, a better father.

Chief DiNozzo had turned his attic into an office and most of the department was crowded into the low-pitched room, each tasked with scanning another segment of the traffic camera footage – not that Camden had many traffic cameras. They only had one – in the center of town and so far, they couldn't find anything out of the ordinary.

"Well, DiNuttzo, you have quite the force up here." Finn turned as the billowing voice entered the room.

Lewis watched as his boss' head whirled around. He sighed. "Fornell, Thank god."

Fornell clapped a hand on DiNozzo's shoulder. "We're going to find her and get her back and then you're going to punch the living day lights out of this bastard – just like I did for Emily."

"Yeah, yeah," DiNozzo nodded, his mind clearly elsewhere. "That's the goal." DiNozzo took a deep breath, before turning to his squad. "Crew," he said, "This is FBI Special Agent Tobias Fornell. He's in charge now."

DiNozzo turned away from the rest of the room and shared a couple of words with Fornell before disappearing down the attic steps.

* * *

Ziva sat in the kitchen and watched as members of Fornell's team and Tony's police department came in and out of her house. They set up phone taps and established a perimeter and took photos. Her house was a crime scene. Her daughter was missing.

When Maya was born, she'd vowed that above all else, Maya would not see the evil of the world that she had seen. Maya would grow up in a sea of tranquility. She would feel safe and she would know stability.

At only five years old, Ziva had already failed her.

Tony came down the stairs and sat down at the table next to her. He ran his hand through his hair. "What the fuck is happening," he muttered. "Who the fuck has my kid."

"I am sure it is someone with a vendetta for me," Ziva said.

Tony straightened. "Ziva, can you not?" He growled. She didn't respond and he softened just a bit. "All I'm saying is that you know as well as I do that I have just as many deranged enemies as you do so don't blame yourself."

She nodded and leaned against his shoulder. "Should we start a list then?"

"Already got one," Gibbs stated from behind them. He came into the kitchen from the front deck and sat down in front of Tony and Ziva. "I need to talk to your neighbor, Maeve Burns."

"Maeve had nothing to do with this," Ziva assured him.

Gibbs shook his head. "Not saying she did, Ziver. Just trying to see if she noticed anything out of the ordinary."

"She's two doors down," Tony said.

Gibbs nodded and got up from the table.

"You don't think Maeve had anything to do with this, do you?" Ziva asked Tony.

He shook his head. "Absolutely not. Anyway, this is a pro job. You were inside for two minutes and she's gone without a trace. This is someone with connections."

Ziva coiled into his arm. "She must be so scared."

* * *

 _Summer 2014_

 _He found her on their terrace. Her feet we up on the coffee table and a book was balanced on her belly. Tony swore that the last month of the pregnancy had made her hair even curlier than it was before._

 _He slid the door open and stepped out. Tony kissed her on the side of the head._

" _Hi," she turned her head to look up at him._

 _He leaned against the railing and smiled at her. "How are the girls today?"_

 _Ziva closed the book and put it on the table beside her. "We are well," she said. "We went for a walk this morning. We ran into Mrs. Morris and her granddaughter and then I tried to take a nap, but evidently Miss. DiNozzo had other ideas."_

" _That part must be from you because I'd never refuse a nap."_

" _Well I think your naps will be seriously lacking in the next couple of weeks."_

 _Tony shrugged. "Kinda looking forward to it." And by kind of, he meant that he was extremely excited for the arrival of their daughter. Ziva was due in just eight short days. The last few months had been such a world wind. He couldn't believe that they were already here. Ever since he'd laid eyes back on Ziva, it's like the world had been set back on its axis._

 _They'd spent the entire weekend together without telling any of the team. It had been Ziva's idea. She was unsure of her place in their quasi family. After all, Tony had been the only one that she'd actually said goodbye to before disappearing for five months._

 _All of that was water under the bridge by now. There are just some things that you have to be willing to forgive and move on from. It's not to say that everyone had an easy time with it. They didn't, but whatever grudge some of them bared it was no match for the love they had for her._

 _She smiled. "I am excited for her as well."_

 _Tony watched as her hand rubbed circles on her belly. He pushed off from the wall and came to squat beside her. His hand landed atop hers and he gave it a squeeze before palming the skin that encased his daughter._

" _Tony," she said and all of a sudden her voice had gotten serious. "I am so sorry that I kept her from you for so long."_

 _His hand stilled on her stomach and he pushed himself off his knees. He pulled the second lounge chair closer and sat down. Tony rubbed his hands over his face. "What are you gonna' do?" he asked. He shrugged. "We're all here now, aren't we?"_

 _She paused for a moment and then nodded in agreement. They were here now._


End file.
